Future Stuck
by shomarus
Summary: Thanks to a combination of terrible luck and her own stupidity, Megurine Luka finds herself stuck in the future with no way back home. And apparently the future doesn't take too kindly to strangers. At the very least, being under the protection of Hatsune Miku doesn't sound all that bad. [Dystopian time travel AU, featuring Negitoro]
1. Chapter 1

So as it turns out, time travel is a completely plausible thing.

Luka didn't really care for the specifics, and why should she? This wasn't her field of study and if you tried to bring up the subject of how this was possible in the first place, Luka would swear that she could hear the faint sound of static. You could throw whatever kind of quantum-psychic bullfuckery you wanted at her; none of it would stick. She wasn't exactly the pioneer of the future.

This was more of her mom's area of expertise, and good on her for that. Luka would be a liar if she said she wasn't interested in the concept of time travel; she had always wanted to know what it would _feel_ like, what it would look like, and what the world would be and what it was. But knowing _how_ it would work less than interested her. Knowing the ins-and-outs was something that maybe some people would get enjoyment out of, and Luka's dear old mom _did_ in fact enjoy the details. Her mother was the lead researcher on this project and whenever she was home long enough to have dinner, it was all she ever talked about (aside from the unprofessional antics pulled by some of her peers on their off time). Good stuff, bad stuff, the inevitable and horribly confusing stuff. Luka did her best to try and follow, but after a while it became clear to even her mom that nobody really knew what she was talking about.

"Hey Luka, are you just about done up there?"

Luka turned her head towards the source of the sound. That was right, mom and her research team finally had something to show for their years slaving away in a lab. They had already built the very first prototype for their time machine. It was a huge clunky device that was so heavy, enough so that other groups of researchers and scientists would have to come over to their lab rather than bringing it over. There was going to be a reveal to a small portion of the public today, which also included Luka and the rest of her family. Mostly because her mom was stubborn about the whole thing, _insisting_ that her family was allowed to see all of her hard work come to fruition.

"Yeah dad, I'll be down in a sec," she called back, slipping on a hoodie. Hardly appropriate wear for something as grand as this, but in the end she knew that nobody would object. Well, aside from her father giving her a raised brow that screamed 'are you sure about that?', but that didn't deter her either.

Her dad gave up, instead opting to shake her shoulder in an excited gesture. "Come on, kiddo. Look alive out there!"

Giving him a sincere smile, she shrugged her shoulders. "Dad, I'm like twenty already. You don't need to keep calling me kiddo, you know?" Not that she minded or anything. She wouldn't dare let her dad know out of fear of the teasing she'd receive, but there was a sense of security that was to be had when a parent called you an affectionate name. Even apathetic losers like Luka had to admit that. "Besides, I _am_ excited! This is like, serious sci-fi shenanigans. It's about _time_ they had something to show for their work."

That kind of awful pun won Luka a snort and a half-assed punch on the shoulder. "And you say that I make awful jokes? My gosh, Luka." She snickered in response, wrapping an arm around her father. "Your mom's already at the lab finishing up preparations, so I say we lock n' load, alright?" Her dad wrapped an arm of his own around Luka, rubbing her back swiftly before pulling away and heading for the garage, where Luka followed.

Ten minutes later and they were out of town and on their way. The research lab was in another city, seeing as they had access to easier supplies as well as replacements as seen necessary. Or something like that, Luka assumed. "You know how they're gonna like... Prove that this machine is actually a time machine and not a total flop or something?"

"The government grant they received is likely proof enough that they're not mucking around," her dad replied steadily, eyes focused on the road. "Though your mom mentioned that the test they'd be conducting was something they had done before; sending a little rover-like thing through with a camera that's set to go off three minutes after bein' sent in. I think it's goin' to the future? Whatever photos are taken are then sent to a monitor and displayed for us, the hungry crowd."

Luka frowned, slipping her shoes off and crossing her legs. "No offense or anything, but that doesn't sound like the most sound proof? I mean, wouldn't people think that they're showing photos from any old place?"

Her dad gave her a very small shrug. "First of all, I'd put your shoes back on. Second of all, she didn't exactly tell me about the goods, but she mentioned somethin' about how the future was 'much different than how we expected it to be', and she seemed pretty excited about it. I trust her." Luka nodded, slipping her shoes back on her feet (with some reluctance).

"Well I mean, alright then." Luka made a face, slipping her ear buds into her ears.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.

As soon as she got out of the car, Luka stretched herself out. "This the right place? Looks a bit empty if you're asking me."

"I wanted us to arrive a little earlier before the crowd so we can get to the front before anyone else does," he spoke with a grin. Luka grinned back as they headed into the facility. This place used to be used by students before her mom's research team got the research grant. The students had another facility to use, so it wasn't really as though they were intruding too much. Still though, Luka could only wonder how safe technology produced in a lab that was once used by high school students was.

Luka looked around as they stepped in. Pretty standard, actually. This part of the place was just for public consumption, exactly what was expected. Like her dad had mentioned, there were two giant monitors on either side of the room.

"Oh, you guys!"

The breath was taken out of her as Luka felt a force run right into her. "Christ! Hey there, mom." Luka could practically feel the energy rolling off of her mom in waves. Definitely for a good reason, but it was rare to see her mom like this. Then again, with all the work she was doing, it was kind of rare to see her at all. Nonetheless, it was a refreshing thing to see from her.

"You guys are so early, d'aw! Welp, you can both take a look around if you want!" Her mom was practically glowing with how much energy she was giving off. "If you go anywhere you shouldn't, there should be people telling you about that. Basically I'm just saying explore to your heart's content, 'kay? If my memory serves me correct, I think I heard Mew talking about doing something rather... unprofessional before the huge reveal, so I gotta go and chase her down. I'll catch you guys later though, okay? Love you! See ya! Smooches, mwah!"

Just as quickly as she came over, she was gone. "You know, she's so cute when she's excited, isn't she?" Her dad said with an airy smile. "Well, I need to use the bathroom, so heed your mother dearest's advice and look around for a bit! Lemme know if you find anything interesting, aight?"

And then there was one. _Well alright,_ Luka thought a little stiffly. _That didn't take very long to transpire at all._ But seeing as both her parents were encouraging her to get a good look around the place, she supposed she might as well make due on those suggestions. The place was pretty empty though, Luka guessing that most of the interesting stuff was safely hidden out of sight. Still, it wouldn't exactly hurt to see if she could catch a glimpse of whatever was being worked on, right? Worst come to worse and then she'd be told to return to the main room.

Yeah, that logic seemed sound enough. So she went poking into rooms, stopping when she caught attention of someone other than her and turning back. Still nothing exactly revolutionary, but...

Hey, wait.

Wasn't there a no pet sign plastered all over the front door? So why was it, Luka wondered, that there was a cat right in front of her.

Kind of a rather weird thing to be seeing in a science facility of all places. You know, cat hairs causing some whack shit to happen or something along those lines? Maybe, probably not. She definitely wasn't imagining the "no animals" sign at the front though, and she figured that this cat would be another excuse to do some even... Deeper exploring. She could just pull the "hey, uh, just following this random cat that shouldn't be here s'all" card. The cat was kind of... Creepy though. Maybe it was the fact that Luka didn't exactly harbor the same positive feelings everyone else did towards these feline fiends. But this one was different. Hell, that didn't make sense even as she was thinking that.

Point was, it was staring at her and she didn't really like that. The cat mewled before disappearing behind a corner. And what choice did Luka have to follow? Occasionally, the cat would stop and check behind it to see if Luka was still following. Then it'd keep walking. The cycle repeated for quite some time. Perhaps it was the fact that Luka was starting to grow bored of this little adventure of hers, or maybe this cat really was choosing to take the longest damn paths to it's destination. It struck her as peculiar though; there was nobody else in these halls but her and this cat. Maybe there was just nothing of interest here? The halls were getting a little dark as well, and Luka pulled out her phone, setting it to flashlight mode in order to accommodate.

Finally the cat stopped walking, but probably only because there was nowhere else for it to go. It's paws batted the wall gently. Luka held her phone up to the wall, figuring out that it wasn't a wall, but a really dark-looking door. She didn't understand why it was necessary for things to be this dark in a science facility where it was probably dangerous for one to be unable to see but oh well. She wasn't a science major.

"Well, you damned rascal. Why the hell not just waltz on in?" She was talking more to herself rather than the cat, who's batting at the door only seemed to increase with each passing second. "Yeah yeah, calm down," she muttered, jiggling the knob and pushing the door open. She expected to see something just about as standard as the main place. Probably just some bottles, or perhaps this was a storage room for certain chemicals.

But there it was.

Rather, there _something_ was. Luka completely forgot the cat, instead directing her attention to the quite massive machine in front of her. In the back of her mind, she wondered if this was the time machine. It was hooked up to a lot of wires, thick and thin. There was stairs that... Lead up to a capsule. The whole thing gave off an eerie vibe. There was a small monitor next to the machine, the screen far too bright for Luka to tell the numbers that were on it. She circled the machine, taking care not to trip over wires. "Futura Tech" was painted on the side of the machine. She could remember her mom talking about Futura. Or maybe it was just future? Fuck, she was an awful listener. The number "001" was painted on the door to the capsule. Likely signifying that this was the first iteration of the product.

It was the absolute worst time for Luka to let her curiosity get the better of her. She knew this. Yet she couldn't stop her feet from climbing up the two steps, in an almost... Enchanted way. "The... The thing's probably not on right now." She swallowed, holding the doors open as she stepped inside. The doors closed behind her. This was a bad idea, this was _such_ a bad idea. But it was exciting, to be one of the first people to even enter the time machine. If this was what it was, but what else could it possibly be?

Two seconds pass.

And then thirty.

"Alright then, I think that's about enough excitement for one week," Luka muttered, feeling around for the door. Her dad was probably wondering where the hell it was she went, and she didn't know how long she had been here anyways. Hey, that was funny... There. There was no door. The whole thing was completely smooth. Luka tried her best not to assume the worst, she really did, but. It was dark, her phone did shit to help her find the exit (of which she was sure there was none), and she was slightly claustrophobic to boot. "H-hah, alright, calm down Luka. Your mom's gonna come in here to do the demonstration and she'll let you out, nothing too bad. Nothing... Nothing too bad at all."

Truthfully, she kind of wanted to cry, but she could leave that for afterwards. Instead, she sunk to the bottom of the capsule. She could feel the cat batting the. _Some_ part of the capsule. But then there was something else. The sound of heels clicking against the ground. Luka could feel hope swell in her heart for a mere second.

Her mom didn't wear heels. She wore flats.

"Oh my, you naughty kitty," the voice spoke. It was feminine and smooth. Almost seductive in a way. Luka frowned, pressing her ear against the cold metal. "Luring someone in here already? You should know that these doors... They're not set to unlock unless something's been sent through, just to prevent any accidents from occurring. And for whoever is in there, well... I have unfortunate news for you."

Luka held her breath. She could feel the sweat in her armpits and this was less than comfortable.

"The future isn't kind. I'd say that's it's a rather unforgiving place. Exactly the reason as to why I wish to conquer it for myself. Quite admirable, wouldn't you say? Well. You'll be dead soon enough, the only thing to say is that I'm sad that I wasn't prepared in time to rescue you. But people, we need some means of getting back. I'll send you off right now, make your last moments quick if nothing else."

She didn't know what else to do but to bang on the metal. "Hey hey hey! N-No, you don't need to do that at all!" She could hear some kind of furious typing. Now Luka _was_ crying. "Hey! HEY! Are you even listening?!"

The typing stopped. "Oh. You know. I can see you in there. You're _her_ kid." Luka stopped the banging to cradle her hand. She hit in the wrong place and too hard.

"Well. I never really liked that wench anyways. Farewell, and once again, my apologies."

Something was pressed. The clicking was going somewhere else.

Luka could only let out half of a choked cry before passing out.

* * *

 **[author's notes]**

 _ **whoa, it's a thing that i'm writing for and hopefully plan to continue writing for. *shrug kaomoji*  
maybe leave a review if you're so inclined so i can write updates knowing that there's an audience for this story.**_

 _ **thank you for reading!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Luka wanted to believe that she had woken up from a bad dream and nothing more.

Of course, Luka wasn't allowed to have nice things and instead found herself awake with a pounding head and zero sense of balance. She tried to stand up and leaning against the wall was all she could do in order to keep herself from collapsing once more. _How... How long was I out for?_ It didn't come back to her all at once. She knew that time travel was a thing. She knew that she had been sent to the future. She knew that she was likely going to die in a matter of minutes.

She knew that she wasn't alone in this room.

The door to the capsule was unlocked, and Luka took a shaky few steps outside. The figure stiffened at the sound and turned around. Luka didn't move and neither did the person staring at her. She couldn't really get a good view of them, seeing as the majority of their body was covered in fabric. This person had _extremely_ vibrant eyes though. Eyes that also looked a little bit. Murderous?

"Do you, uh. Do you want me to like, go back inside the capsule or somethin'? Because I. I can most definitely do that, especially if you feel like killing something." Now was not the time to be cracking smartass comments like that, but if at the hands of some cloaked stranger was how Luka was going to die, she was going to die with at least a touch of humour.

Instead of leaping at her in a fit of rage or whatever else Luka expected, they simply turned around again. "I thought you were dead. Didn't want to touch, dead bodies bring diseases." Luka couldn't do anything but nod. The voice was high-pitched and dare she say cute, Luka tentatively assuming this person to be female. Not that she'd know, maybe humans had evolved more in the span of fuckall many years she had traveled. The figure pulls her hood down and turns around again.

Her hair was long and teal (something Luka would call odd were it not for her own salmon pink hair), tied into twintails. This gave her a youthful appearance in contrast to those eyes of hers, blue and wide yet aged beyond their years. Luka wondered what kind of stuff you'd have to go through to look like this. "Tell me, what was it that you were doing in there?"

Luka hesitated for a moment. Would... Would she find it stupid and unbelievable if she were to say the truth? Probably not, this _was_ the future. They probably time traveled frequently. "This thing here? Uh, long story I won't delve into, but it's like, the first time machine? I was sent here by some wacky lady with a future kink or whatever. Er, disregard that last comment? That was kind of dumb, sorry. Point is! I was sent from the past and I'm kinda really shaken and also a little bit scared! A little bit of reassurance that you're not gonna like, bite my head off or some freaky shit like that would be a little nice right now but no pressure, my guy."

Had Luka always been this pathetic?

The girl didn't smile (not that Luka would expect her to). "I'm not going to kill you, stop acting like prey in the sight of a predator." Well, that was nice to know at least? "However... You're from the past, hm? You're likely the only human to have used time travel at all, really. I wonder... Tell me your name."

"Uh. Luka. Megurine Luka? Not really a cool name or anything like that but it is what it is," she said with a small shrug.

Her eyes widen with realization. "My, so you _are_ that Luka..." Luka's look of confusion must have been painfully apparent, the girl realizing this and continuing. "The whole reason as to why human time travel is prohibited is because a woman was sent to the future by complete mistake. This woman being you. Then people became aware of tiny discrepancies. I wouldn't know how to explain it to you, these kinds of shifts only appeared for brief amounts of time before stopping altogether. There were also a few more disease outbreaks that stemmed as a result, we weren't taught why. Anyways, the concept of biological creatures using time travel to their advantage was no more. Instead we use time travel more as teleportation devices across small distances of time, like hours." She was silent for an indefinite amount of time, leaving Luka to ponder her words. Her expression grew bleak. "This was required reading back when schools were easily accessible... And now."

Luka hung on her every word. "And now... what?" It was a little daunting to think that solely because she had been launched into the future, she had the ability to change small things. Or at the very least, at one point this had been the case.

"Ah, I shouldn't expect you to know. I'll tell you the rest of the story as we surface, this place is stuffy and it gives me chills. You aren't really... prepped for the outside though. Mm... We'll see how far you can bear it, we'll take breaks along the way." The girl walked to the exit and gestured for Luka to come with her. "By the way, you may call me Miku." Miku smiled coyly, Luka unable to understand why.

She simply nodded and went along. She walked out, only to be yanked back into the room by Miku. Luka yelped in surprise, turning around to see just what the big idea was. "Oh wait, hold up. You're injured." Ah... Now that Luka wasn't fixated on whatever else, she was reminded of the pounding in her head. Or rather, the side of her head. "Shit. You must have really banged yourself up bad in there. Was there anything sharp in there? That's pretty deep... And trust me, unless you're asking to be killed you _don't_ want to be wounded and unsheltered. Too much risk for infection, especially with the kind of environment we live in. Uh, go sit over there, I'll check to see if there's anything around here that'll help."

As much as Luka would have loved to start heading out, she couldn't deny that the threat of unknown disease plaguing her was probably more horrifying than the thought of simply staying idle for a few more minutes. She complied with Miku's request easily, taking a seat on the steps to the time machine. In the meantime, Miku rummaged through drawers in an attempt to jolt her memory. Had she seen anything that could be used as a bandage? Any kind of usable antiseptic? There were no chemicals in this room and there wasn't any cloth either. "Nothing, hey? In a pinch, I suppose this will have to do," she spoke while producing a knife from underneath her cloak. Luka eyed the sharp piece of metal carefully as Miku cut into the bottom of her clothes, taking a thin strip of fabric off and slowly wrapping it around Luka's head. She made sure to press as tightly as she could, Luka wincing the whole while.

"And there. It's probably not tied up the best, I was never cut out to deal with injured patients. That's more of... Well, you'll see when we get back to the main base. Alright, chop chop, hurry on up." Miku pointed ahead, Luka taking a step forward before realizing that she didn't really know how to navigate these halls. Before she had only been blindly following the cat. Still though, she didn't want to bother Miku more than she already had, so what else was there to do but to start walking? Each step grew more mindless and before long Luka was walking, making turn after turn without much thought. It helped that most pathways were blocked off with rubble.

Soon enough they were out of the hall and into the main room. Luka could see a glimpse of the world that laid outside these confined walls. It was all she could to do keep from tripping over herself in an attempt to see the outside world. Finally, she pushed the doors open, Miku quietly trailing behind.

How soon was it that a place could change this drastically.

Things that Luka had barely noticed as she walked into this place, she could note as being missing or destroyed as she walked out. Cars remained in the lot, but many were tattered and unusable. Grass was practically nonexistent and instead layers of dust blew in the wind. Luka didn't know what to say, she felt oddly numb. "I... hoo, wow." She exhaled sharply, looking around. Miku walked to her side and looked up at her. "Great Jesus fuck, man... I. What the fuck happened for things to get this bad?"

"Not now," Miku reminded her gently, placing a hand on Luka's shoulder. "I'll tell you soon. I can see you're in a bit of shock right now, so we'll head over to the closest survival center. A little walking to take your mind off things. And I don't know if I should really tell you this, but there are dangerous people out there and some could be roaming this very city. It's in our best interests to move and promptly."

Airily Luka nodded, saying nothing. She allowed herself to be dragged by Miku for a bit before letting her take the lead. Following Miku just as blindly as she had followed the cat. This gave her the time to think about the whole chunk of utter _shit_ that had been going on up until now. Travelling to the future, meeting Miku here, seeing the world's collapse right in front of her. It was daunting and all Luka wanted was sleep. And her parents back.

Fuck. Her parents.

She didn't want to think about them. She didn't want to think about the anguish they must have gone through when they realized that she had disappeared without a goodbye. Did her dad blame her mom for this? Did her mom feel guilt and regret? And neither of them knew that she had been sent by someone rather than it being a freak accident. Luka stopped, clenching her fists. Miku turned around after noticing that Luka was no longer following her. "You're still pretty razzed up, aren't you? ... Let's keep going, the center's up ahead and it won't take much longer for us to get there."

"Y-yeah, let's do that." And so they continued, Luka trying to keep her thoughts off of whatever shit had gone down in the past. "So when you say survivor center, I'm just. Shucks, sorry, I'm entirely confused. I just need to know the basics, lay whatever kind of epic storyweaver shit you wanna lay on me later."

Miku didn't stop walking, barely missing a beat between conversation. "There's not exactly a lot of people in this world. I don't know the numbers so don't bother asking. Even in trying times such as these, there's still a hierarchy that's adhered to. Rich people are protected. I don't believe that it existed in your time... But there's cities that thrive. Cities that are protected by walls. Walls that are designed to keep people like us out." Her expression turned bitter. "I've had just about... About enough of their shit. Back at home base there are hundreds of people who are just like me. We set out every once in a while on little... Raids. Think of it as reclamation, we're taking what we deserve. There's quite a bit to explain, but... I suppose that all you really needed to know to answer your question is that there are people who are allied up with me who nurse people who are found sick outside."

Now that Luka thought about it, Miku had a tendency to talk a lot. "That's... Interesting. So, uh, I guess that you guys should be doing fairly well off if you have a few cities to yourselves?" Miku nodded in response. "And um. That's the survivor center up ahead?"

The building in front of them was much more whole than the buildings surrounding it. Every building Luka had seen thus far seemed to be picked apart, leaving nothing but foundation and stray bits of concrete, metal and glass everywhere. But this building, despite it being small for a "survivor center"... It seemed decent to at least take in survivors in the first place. From the outside at least.

Miku held the door open for Luka and peered inside. "Yukari, are you in there?"

"Just a minute!" A muffled voice called out. Two seconds later, a young woman scurried to their side. "Hey there Miku! Wasn't expectin' you today. And my! Who might this one be? Another survivor you picked up? In a way she looks kind of pampered!"

This Yukari person had a bright demeanor, Luka felt slightly unnerved. "Her name's Luka. I'll let you know what the whole deal is up with her later though, do you have a room we can stay in for the night? I need to get this one oriented, seeing as we're gonna head back to base tomorrow morning."

"Ah yeah, gimme a second and I'll toss the keys over," she spoke, already halfway to the back room already. Keys literally flew towards them, Miku catching them easily without much of a struggle. "Your room is room 116! Come back down and holler if you need anything, I'll be attending to some business!"

"Gotcha," Miku repsonded, leading Luka to the room they were provided. After slamming the key into the hole and jiggling around with it for a bit, the door opened. Luka found the place to be a little bland. Everything was white and the only furniture in this room as far as she could see was the bed. Then again, she didn't quite have a problem with this. Definitely a downgrade from the run-of-the-mill hotel back in the past, but this was a survivor center in the future where things have clearly gone to the dogs. "Make yourself at home, not that you really have anything on you anyways."

Luka couldn't help herself from running over to the bed and landing on it. How she loved the softness of the bed... Luka continued to lay down before Miku reappeared from the closet. She no longer donned her cloak. Instead she wore rather plain black clothes, a tank top and torn pants. "I'll wash these up later..." Miku mumbled to herself. "Anyways, you're comfortable, correct? Now that we don't have to worry about anything, I can tell you about how this world came to be, as well as it's new systems. It's nothing too spectacular, but you'll likely need to know all this."

 _"Our story begins as such..."_

* * *

 **[author's notes]**

 **and another chapter now! the next chapter focuses on exposition. i have a sort of half-baked plan for how this story continues so i'll hopefully be able to write without everything seeming completely awful.**

 **anyways, please leave a review if you're so inclined! it helps motivate me n stuff.**

 **thank you for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

"The first nuke was launched back in 2020. But worry not, it had nothing to do with the botched time travel experiment. Although I suppose that North Korea would have loved to get it's hands on time travel technology. The ability to have soldiers in any place at any time would have given them a huge up... Except for the fact that the head scientist shut down the entire operation, despite urges from. Other sources." Miku rubbed her chin. "I mean, she was still pretty influential? But she wasn't defamed because, well. People wanted to know. And her team of scientists pretty much fell apart. Eventually she released that information though, which helped lead us to where we are today."

Luka nodded. She barely noticed herself leaning towards Miku. "And? You said 'the first' nuke. What about... Were there other ones?"

"Yeah. I mean, there weren't a metric fuckton of them, but...It wasn't even really just nukes. Deforestation became such a problem, and in tandem with radioactivity... Nothing grew back. We still have some forests, but they're small and heavily guarded. _Extremely_ heavily. Anyways... The world grew pretty barren. The buildings outside are only a small portion, and certainly there are parts that aren't as bad. Yet there are parts that do not look as sightly, either. The ground splits open. And while we haven't had to deal with them for years, for a while there were anomalies," Miku spoke. "Deviations, glitches. Things that happened that weren't supposed to. Remembering things wrong, landscapes changing before your eyes, people phasing in and out of existence. And random diseases popped up and spread en masse. While your case of time travel was the only one made extremely public, I feel as though you're not the only one who did it."

"With something like that, I wouldn't really doubt it either, hey? Jesus, shit sounds... Real fuckin' tough though. Anything else? You uh, you mentioned walls."

Miku's gaze hardened. "Basically they're... Protected areas. For people who are rich, people who are 'intelligent'. Only pretending to care about justice for appearances. But justice means nothing to them, in their perfect little societies in their perfect little bubbles and in their perfectly imperfect little minds." Her tone was harsh, rushed. It led Luka to wonder just how bad it was. "And if we don't like their little rules... Then they'll just shun us as if we're nothing more than a pack of fucking animals. Denying us even the most basic level of healthcare. Since there's no government, they can do whatever the fuck they please. Even in a landscape ravaged by decay, money is the only true governor."

Luka tentatively put a hand on Miku's shoulder. They stared at each other for a second, Luka giving her an awkward smile. "You gonna be good? We can stop the explanations for now, you look exhausted as all hell." Miku bit her lip, but eventually nodded her head.

"Yeah, sorry. There's a bit more to tell about our, uh. World. But I think that someone at the base could give you a less biased explanation than that." Suddenly, Miku sat up and flashed a huge grin at the other woman. "Hey! Tell me about the past, and if you have nothing to say tell me about you!"

What was with the sudden personality shift? But nevertheless, Luka thought about it for a second. "Well. Our world is... Was? It was pretty. Seeing this place as it is... I wonder why I took the Earth's beauty for granted. There were trees everywhere, not in protected patches. And our cities were big, strong, everyone was welcome. Er, no no no wait. I shouldn't say that. There was still an element of class and race-based power, y'know? But there weren't walls." Actually, now that Luka came to think about it, there were a lot of similarities between this kind of dystopian universe and around 2019, where Luka hailed from.

"Huh. The books praised your world for being so perfect, but I suppose that imperfection lies even in the past. And yourself? Tell me about that."

"There... Isn't much to say, really? I was planning to go to university in the music department. My mom was the head scientist of the whole time travel shtick, but I think you already knew that. Um, I'm not really the best at talking about myself, heh." Luka looked away, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I can play piano, and actually won a few awards at various competitions, though uh. That's pretty much where all the good stuff ends. What about you? You're kinda mysterious, hey? O-Of course, not like that's a bad thing or anything like that..."

Miku smiled. "Well, I was born into these ruins. My parents did the absolute best they could for me, but sometimes that's not really enough. They perished." Her smile disappeared. Luka's hand went for her shoulder again, a gesture of sorrow. "But about me! I'm the leader for our survivor district. I mean, as 'leader' as one can be when trying to manage a bunch of pissed off teenagers. You mentioned music, right? That's really interesting, we have a few radios around our main base, as well as a worn down set of instruments... We think that our base used to be a nightclub before the whole. Thing. I can't play anything though..."

"I could try to teach you some basics later? I mean, if you'd like," Luka offered. Miku just grinned. "So a good majority of the uh. Survivors, as you say, are teenagers?"

"Mm, yes. I myself turned eighteen a while ago, but at least in my base, the oldest person we have is twenty-eight years old. The youngest we have is eight, but... Well, point is pretty much everyone there is on the younger side of the human lifespan. A lot of adults outside the walls die um. Quicker than what they probably did in the past." Miku let out a sigh. "You know what? I'm kind of getting tired. My feet hurt like a hell and we still have more travelling to do tomorrow. But I don't think it'll take as long to get there as it took to get here from the science center."

"No bath?"

"There's not a lot of clean water here," Miku admitted. "The base is actually a deserted city, so you'll get a bath and some food there. I hope you can bear with travelling on empty stomachs for a while longer?"

Luka simply shrugged. "Yeah, no prob. Goodnight then..." She crawled under the covers of the bed, and Miku followed suit. "You're comfy, right?" Tiredly, the other girl nodded. It didn't take long for Miku to fall asleep, but Luka just... Couldn't. Her mind was completely blank, but she couldn't exactly will herself to sleep whenever she wanted. So she began to think about everything she heard today. There was still a bit that she wanted to know, and she almost kind of regretted stopping Miku in the middle of her explanation. But she wasn't going to wake her up now.

Vaguely, she wondered how she was going to go back to the past. _If_ she could go back to the past. And if she could, and if she did... What then? There were time anomalies. Would they follow her to the past, even if seemingly nothing has changed? Or would she have to live out this world, for the decline to continue until eventually nothing remained? Eventually, Luka's worries dulled down, and her own exhaustion washed over her in waves. She fell asleep. And she dreamed.

* * *

 _A woman crosses her legs, eyes on her paper and hand on her mug. A cat rubs against her, but she pays it no mind. "You know, I almost feel kind of bad for her. She's a walking time paradox, and if the future doesn't kill her... Well then she'd simply phase out of existence. She'd cease to be, and all those memories... Gone. Although it's necessary to make sacrifices, wouldn't you agree? Well, no. You're a cat. Completely separated from the troubles of this world, you couldn't care about a thing."_

 _She leans back and pulls out her phone. Her thumbs swipe over the screen, dialing up a... friend. "You've got them in your sights, right? And you know what to do? ... Yes, yes. But hurry, or I might do something awful..." Only now does her attention turn to the infant in the corner of the room. "Sacrifices are a necessity. Go, do it now." The phone is slammed onto the table. She sighed._ _"Considering the fact that I still remember her at all... Nothing seems to have happened yet. Oh well, it will. Until then... Ah, fuck, I'll have to keep working on a way to prevent unstable time paradoxes. But you know... She could likely help me in that endeavor."_

 _"Wouldn't you like to that for me, Luka?"_

* * *

The next morning, Luka was gently shaken awake by Miku. "Wake up, Luka. We need to go." Groggily, Luka got herself out of the inviting folds off the bed. Miku was in her cloak again, and this time she had another one. Presumably for Luka. "You didn't bring anything else, so put this on. Protects you from being seen and from sun and dust."

In about five minutes, they said their goodbyes to Yukari and were out the door and on their way. "I ended up talking to Yukari about who you were and why before we left. I hope that you do not mind, but I suppose that either way it's done."

There wasn't exactly much that someone could do with that information, Luka figured. Yeah, she traveled through time. She had to end up somewhere, and people should understand that. But Yukari was someone that Miku seemed to trust, and she certainly didn't look any bit malicious. "Yeah, but consult with me next time, hey?" Miku agreed with Luka in saying that.

Their journey was a little more quiet this time, aside from growls coming from Luka's stomach. Miku seemed to be surprised at this. "Ah, but you're probably not used to the harshness of the present. You'll live, so grin and bear it." And they continued to walk.

"Hey. Miku? I had a dream last night. It's like, kinda fuzzy and all that but... Well." Luka struggled to find the right words, Miku kept going, but nodded her head in acknowledgement. "You don't really know the circumstances and why I'm here. Me travelling to the future wasn't, like. Entirely an accident."

"Oh?"

There was no stopping. "Hah... Yeah, uh. I mean, I found the room sort of on my own? There was like, a fuckin' cat but I don't think that really matters too much. But I went into the machine, and I couldn't get out. Instead of waiting for my mom to get there, someone... Someone else came in? And uh. She was the one who sent me to the future."

"That's... Rather interesting, actually." Miku turned around for a brief second. "It was written off as a complete accident. But knowing that isn't, well... But what does that have to do with your dream?"

Luka made a face, and they continued to walk. "The woman in my dream had the same voice. I don't... I don't remember what exactly she was saying but I feel like it was that woman. I mean, I know it doesn't mean anything. I'm not exactly like, the next prophet or whatever. But it's just. Ugh. I don't want that woman invading my dreams."

"Mm... It's likely this will be the only time you'll ever dream about it. Dreams are odd but they're rarely ever the same. But I myself haven't had any dreams for quite a while. I never get to have enough sleep in order for me to dream in the first place," Miku muttered.

Luka raised an eyebrow. "Is it hard being a leader, then? Like, what the hell do you guys even do?"

"I organize raids and patrols. Appointing guards, trading with other survivors, sometimes counselling too... All of that's my job. I also do solo expeditions, like what you saw when I found you," Miku explained. "Hey, since you've got nothing to do for a while, once you check out the base and all that... How about I take you on as a new recruit?"

A new recruit? Well. A tantalizing offer. "But... What would I even do? I've got like, no combat skills and I'm not a scavenger and little do you know that I'm horrendously out of shape too."

Miku snorted. "So what, you're just gonna freeload? I'm going to train you myself, nobody's inherently perfect at rogue combat. And depending on where you wanna apply yourself the most, I will hook you up with another trainer." Luka nodded. _It'd be fine then, I suppose. She's not going to tease me for being overly shit at stick-to-stick combat or anything, right? I'd hate to look stupid in front of her... Geez._

"Alright, sure. You're right anyways, I ain't got nothing to do once we get there." She shrugged, and the journey continued for a few minutes more. Luka was noticing that this place had gotten pretty dusty, earth being cracked and peeled, city streets from her time period protruding from the ground beneath it. Exactly the type of shit you'd expect to see from a sci-fi novel. It was scary, and while she knew that ultimately, it was just a fantasy... She wondered, just faintly, if it was possible for her to have prevented any of this. Probably not. They kept on, and eventually Luka could see the faint silhouette of a skyline.

"The walls are... So big," Luka pointed out with an air of wonder about her. Miku nodded. "I suppose that they wanted to keep things out... I. I wonder what else has changed..." Certainly, Miku couldn't know everything there was to know about the past. And Luka didn't even want to begin to think of what other dangers transpired between the time that she traveled through.

They arrived at the front gate. They waited for a few moments in silence, and just like that, the door opened. "If you came here by yourself, the door wouldn't have opened. We don't have people manning the gates to interview each individual person who walks by. But! I will get you set up with the facial recognition promptly."

Immediately, Luka was astounded. Dissimilar to the worn down desolation of the outside world, this base was... Modern, fresh. Billboards weren't lit up, but it was... So colorful. Totally unlike the drab browns and golds she had seen for the past few hours. "... Wow." Miku giggled proudly, glad to see that Luka was impressed.

"Well? Come on, come on! I have to introduce you to my most trusted friends!" Miku skipped ahead of her. The city wasn't the only thing that was more colorful; Miku seemed brighter, cheerier. It suited her, and even thinking about it brought a smile to Luka's lips.

Luka ran to catch up.

But unbeknownst to the both of them, someone was watching. Inside the shadow of a pushed over cart. A phone was brought up to their ear. "I know what to do. They arrived at the city, and I'll wait to get more information on their plans before I execute your orders..."

"Just. Please. Don't do anything to my kid."

* * *

 **[author's notes]**

 _ **well that only took forever to write now didnt it lmao  
sorry it's a little short and boring considering how long i put it off, but i hope to make things a little more interesting in the next chapter. leaving a review would be highly appreciated! ;3c**_

 ** _thank you for reading!_**


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